


she was like an old dream come to life

by MigrantMayhem



Series: healing takes time, like seeds growing to flowers [3]
Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Getting to Know Each Other, Gift Giving, Slow Burn, Smoking, Strangers to Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:35:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29366379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MigrantMayhem/pseuds/MigrantMayhem
Summary: Sebastian didn't really know what to think of the new farmer-- he chose not to think about her, really. Until, of course, she refused to be forgotten.---Kind of a resolution to my last fic in this series, also me dealing with the fact that I've written four total chapters with Willow and haven't properly described her.
Relationships: Sebastian/Female Player (Stardew Valley)
Series: healing takes time, like seeds growing to flowers [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2154150
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	she was like an old dream come to life

**Author's Note:**

> spring 7, year 1

Sebastian sat against the base of the old tree by the lake, smoking a cigarette, as he stared off into the rain. He didn’t mind the rain-- never had, but the tree offered him enough shelter that it wouldn’t put his cigarette out. His mind was still stuck on his module downstairs-- something in the code was broken, and it was driving him crazy trying to figure out what the hell it was. The module was supposed to be finished by noon tomorrow, but he still had to find the error before he could fix it. If he was lucky it was just something as simple as a typo, which he would still kick his own ass for letting that happen, but if it was anything more serious than that it was going to need multiple rounds of debugging to make sure the issue had been fixed and-- Yoba, it made his head hurt just to think about.

He pressed his scalp against the bark of the tree, groaning aloud, barely audible through the downpour.

“Hey, mind if I join you?” A voice shouted and he nearly jumped a foot in the air.

Sitting bolt upright now, he quickly located the source of his disturbance. Wet, teal hair clung to her scalp as she rushed towards the tree, dark spots fading into the washed-out blue of her distressed, baggy jeans. A tight cord was tied around her waist and he could see the pale skin of her stomach from under her crop top the way she was holding a jingling backpack over her head. He made himself as small as possible, giving her plenty of space and also trying to avoid her trampling him. She had a pickaxe and a sword slung in the loops of her toolbelt, and he watched as they dangerously swung around her hips.

Willow slid to a stop against the tree, scratched up hands catching herself on the bark of the tree. Her backpack sounded heavy when she swung it off her shoulder and tossed it carelessly in the mud.

“What do you even have in there?” Sebastian asked, despite himself. She pressed her back against the tree and slid to sit next to him, catching her breath.

“Rocks and more rocks. Some shinier, some not.”

“...Why?”

Willow looked at him, and he took in her features for the first time since they met. She was pale, but she had the starts of a tan-- or maybe it was a sunburn, coloring her cheeks and nose red. Her nose was pointed, rounded at the tip, and she had a septem piercing. Well, she had plenty of piercings-- cheek piercings that highlighted her dimples when she pulled her full, rosy lips into a smile. She also showed off her crooked teeth, a gap about the size of a quarter between her two front teeth, and that alone made her look like she fit in here in the Valley. Her brows were thick and dirty blonde, her left one having a ring and a stud through it. Her hair was cut short-- shaved along the sides and long on top, so long that now that it was wet her hair hung over her pale, moon-gray eyes. Her ears were as well-pierced as her face, with two piercings in her lobes and three rings in her cartilage on her right side, and an industrial bar with a single ring beneath it in her left. When she turned her head and laughed, he could see that her freckles trailed down from her face around the back of her neck. 

“Why not?” She answered, finally. His eyes shot back up from her skin to her face, and he turned out to the lake quickly. “Truthfully, I’m working on a project that needs a lot of stone. I want to build a little raised garden-- with stacked stones as the edges.”

“Oh, yeah. Guess that would take quite a few trips back and forth to the mines,” He muttered, taking another drag off of his cigarette.

Willow sighed next to him, and he spared her another glance. “Oh, hey, do you wanna see something I found?”

Sebastian furrowed his brow. He really wanted to finish his cigarette in peace, but his curiosity was piqued. He leaned back until he was pressed against the tree with her, shoulders practically brushing. He tried really hard not to appear too interested-- he had developed his entire demeanor around being disinterested. He wasn’t even sure why-- why it mattered to him. He guessed he didn’t want her to get the wrong idea.

“Here!” She pulled out a smoky-white crystal cluster. Sebastian couldn’t help but smile a little bit. “Do you know what it is? I… I don’t even know, I just thought it was pretty, so I picked it up.”

“Um, I think it’s like, clear quartz?” He spoke softly, just so she could hear, “Emily talks up the properties of quartz and clear quartz all the time-- if you believe that kinda nonsense.”

Willow laughed, rolling the stone over in her hand, “I mean, it definitely drew my attention… here, do you want it?” She held it out for him.

“What?”

“Do you want it?” She sat forward just enough to look him in the eye.

“I don’t need it.”

“Well, neither do I,” She studied him, before a smile broke across her face. She quickly snatched his free hand from where it sat limply on his knee, and he tried to jerk away but the transaction had already been completed. He opened his palm to look at the crystal, rolling it within his own palm. It was cool, sturdy. It was a rock, his logical brain told him, but it was a pretty rock. It made him feel a little lighter. He looked up when Willow made a satisfied sound. She smirked, and Sebastian had to ignore all those leftover teenage dreams of a punk girl from the city resurfacing at once. “It’s yours,” She spoke with finality, “As thanks for sorting out my ex the other night.”

“You don’t have to--” He tried to argue, still surprised from the spontaneous niceness.

“I want to. I… I was thinking about what you said Friday night. That you don’t know me. I’ve never minded being a stranger, but I don’t think we should be, you know?”

Seb glanced down at the crystal again, before looking back up at Willow, “I… Alright. Okay.”

“I’ll see you around, okay, Seb?” She smiled warmly, standing up from the ground and wiping the mud off of her clothes. She heaved her backpack up, grunting with effort.

“Uh, you need a hand--?” He stood up with her, and he was reminded just how small she was. She wasn’t more than an inch or two over Abigail in height, and lacked any of the muscle mass of his childhood friend. She couldn’t have been even a hundred pounds wet.

“No, I’ll be fine,” She said, with all the confidence she could muster between her gritted teeth. He considered stopping her, taking it on his own. But she grinned all the while, so he trusted her. He grabbed the back of the backpack and lifted it just enough so she could slide her arms into the shoulder straps.

“Yoba--” Sebastian grunted, “This shit’s heavy. You sure you’ll be good walking home?”

She nodded, “I got through the mines with this on my back, so I think I’ll be okay.”

“Alright, but I’d better not hear about Linus finding you collapsed under the weight of your own backpack.”

She laughed, “You won’t, you won’t. Thanks, Seb. I’ll see you around.”

He couldn’t help but smile at the sound of her laugh. “Alright, see you around, Willow.”

She started making her way around the side of Robin’s house, and soon he couldn’t see her past the roof. He sighed, shaking his head. No wonder Abby was so excited for him to meet her, she was just his type. He wasn’t about to try and stumble into a relationship with some stranger, though, despite Abby’s barely-concealed wishes. No, he didn’t trust that easily. He tucked the rock into his pocket, put out his cigarette, and wandered through the rain, back into the house.


End file.
